Download this bong: 3D printer templates for getting your buzz on

Cannabis culture embracing maker tech, puts sticky resin in 3D resin.

3D printers are gaining in popularity, with uses spanning the spectrum from moon bases to firearms, but there's another area where the ability to construct complex shapes is beginning to provide benefits: getting high.

Online magazine Motherboard has published the story about the slow but inevitable rise of 3D-printed bongs. MakerBot's Thingiverse site returns almost two dozen template results when searching for "bong," all of which are downloadable in STL format and printable on tons of different 3D printers.

Common resin-based 3D printers can't create glass, so a water pipe produced from these templates wouldn't be entirely print-n-toke, but most appear to be ready to go as soon as glass pipes are added. The descriptions for many of the pipes indicate that they should be printed with PLA, which the Ice Bong creator notes "is biodegradable and poses no health risk and also has no smell."

Questions of convenience aside, the 3D printing of what could be called "drug paraphernalia" raises an interesting set of issues which parallel those raised by firearms printing. As marijuana legalization gains traction at the state level, what is the responsibility of 3D repositories like Thingiverse to police themselves? Is it "moral" to allow the storing and downloading of 3D bong templates but not firearm templates? Casual marijuana smokers consistently tout the harmlessness of the drug, but those opposed to its legalization point to the dangers of abuse; on the opposite side of that coin, firearm enthusiasts push their own hobby's safety and the dangers of restricting gun ownership. Each group may be seen by the other as somewhat hypocritical: a gun is a tool, but gun control proponents point out that guns are tools designed to kill.

Moral issues aside, 3D printing lowers barriers to construction and actually lowers far more barriers for firearm creation than for bong creation—it's a lot harder and more expensive to buy a gun than to buy a bong, and there are legal issues around gun ownership that 3D printing can circumvent. It's not illegal to purchase an "unlicensed" bong (though you might get tossed out of the head shop if you can't stop asking the clerk how high the bong will get you), but would fast access to a 3D printer and a template really encourage drug use?

From a purely practical perspective, the answer right now is "no," if only because a bong isn't necessary to use marijuana. Though 3D printing might lower the entry barrier to procuring a bong (especially if you're under 18 in the USA and can't purchase one), actually having a 3D printer itself is quite a barrier. This is reflected by the download numbers for the bong templates on Thingiverse: as Motherboard notes, the IceBong's download count of 789 isn't exactly "disruptive." But as 3D printing matures, the technology may become exactly that. Scanners and copiers today include methods to prevent them from counterfeiting currency; it's conceivable that legal mandates might spring up to encourage 3D printer manufacturers to ensure their devices don't print "illegal" or "immoral" patterns.

In other words, now would probably be a good time to get your 3D bong on, before the man steps in and harshes your mellow.

Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Lee_Ars

Kids, put down the bongs, with all of their exploded myths about being better for you, and pick up a vaporizer. Sadly something that 3D printing won't help you much with given the temperature requirements.

Kids, put down the bongs, with all of their exploded myths about being better for you, and pick up a vaporizer. Sadly something that 3D printing won't help you much with given the temperature requirements.

Listen to this dude Aurich (or should that be Rufus) - he knows what he's talking about.

Seems like an awful lot of trouble when you can go down the the convenient store and pick up a pack up rolling papers. Or failing that just dish in a soda can and add some holes. Not that I know mind you.

if these things can make electronics one day, it will be the end of all electronic manufacturing. We will be able to print everything, including the 3d printers themselves. ooowwwwwww, it's getting spooky in here

My college professor told us a great story about some kid in the freshman CAD class. Everyone had to model something for their end of the year project. One kid turned in a design for a bong. The teacher had no idea what it was supposed to be until he asked my professor.

I don't understand all the worry about using 3D printers to make gun parts. There are literally millions of guns in circulation in the US. In countries where gun ownership is tightly regulated, ammunition is hard to come by, so being able to make a plastic gun doesn't get you much either.

Kids, put down the bongs, with all of their exploded myths about being better for you, and pick up a vaporizer. Sadly something that 3D printing won't help you much with given the temperature requirements.

You need to look at a pen vaporizer with the ear wax looking stuff. I think the temp requirements are much lower. I'm sure with the proper mfg resin it could be made on a 3D printer.

You're not applying heat to any of the plastic, what's missing is the stem that holds the bowl where you're putting the flame. The bottom of the stem is immersed in the water, so it won't get hot enough where it's contacting the plastic to be an issue.

Kids, put down the bongs, with all of their exploded myths about being better for you, and pick up a vaporizer. Sadly something that 3D printing won't help you much with given the temperature requirements.

You need to look at a pen vaporizer with the ear wax looking stuff. I think the temp requirements are much lower. I'm sure with the proper mfg resin it could be made on a 3D printer.

A vaporizer needs to heat to around 415°F/212°C (your ideal temps may vary) to work. That's not something I'm really thinking I want to do with resin.

You're not applying heat to any of the plastic, what's missing is the stem that holds the bowl where you're putting the flame. The bottom of the stem is immersed in the water, so it won't get hot enough where it's contacting the plastic to be an issue.

I would still worry about the place where the stem is held by the plastic. Glass may be ok, but a metal bowl/stem can get hella hot. Also it would seem pretty hard to clean with the ridges. You would need to sand the inside really well and do one of those acetone baths to make it smooth before use.

Diving straight into politics: Finally, an article that acknowledges that drugs and guns are essentially the same issue: things that a majority enjoys as pointless but fun, a minority abuses them to inflict damage on themselves and others.

Now if we can convince the hippies that firing an auto fire Uzi at an open range is no more dangerous than dropping Acid at a festival (in both cases, your ears ring if you forgot to wear protection) and convince the gun nuts that growing pot in your backyard kill as many kids in your neighborhood as reloading your 38 special rounds (that is no kids are killed by those activities), we'd have a better world.

I've never smoked the stuff so I can't comment on any change in taste, but I've seen plenty of people who use plastic bongs. I don't see why it needs to be glass, as long as you avoid certain types of plastics.

If you can put soft drinks or milk in plastic I don't see why a bong would be any different.

I would still worry about the place where the stem is held by the plastic. Glass may be ok, but a metal bowl/stem can get hella hot.

I get the concern that a metal stem will conduct heat pretty well from the bowl, but don't forget that the other end of the stem is immersed in water, so the middle part of the stem shouldn't get too warm. For those who don't like to take any chances, they can use a grommet made of rubber or any other suitable material that can handle heat better than PLA plastic.